Thoughts about branding, marketing strategy, design, and copywriting.

December 20, 2007

Regular readers of this blog (if there are any left) have no doubt noticed that I haven't posted anything for a number of months. Sorry.

I made the decision to return to school for my MBA this past summer and it has consumed all of the extra time I have had. On the bright side, I'm having a blast and learning a lot (accounting, statistics, finance). I'm beginning to fill a few holes in my knowledge-base and it's been great.

I'm hoping to post a few thoughts while I'm on Christmas break, then in all likelihood, the blog will go dark again for a while.

If you're visiting for the first time, scroll down and check out the archives. Hopefully you'll find something there of value. For the rest of you, I'll be back just as soon as I can.

May 30, 2007

Earlier today I spoke to a small group of rural business owners who were participating in the Rural Utah Business Conference. In many cases, these business owners face an enormous challenge—building a business and communicating a great brand story in a small town (or no town at all). Often they have few local customers, few resources, and a very small support network.

While there, I had the opportunity to see a presentation by Kendall Card from Backcountry.com about how they have used blogs to build traffic to their main site. Kendall is at least partly responsible for the content posted to the various Backcountry.com blogs, including Backcountry and The Goat.

And while I tend to shy away from blogging about blogging, two things Kendall said caught my attention. Backcountry invites its customers to post on company blogs about their outdoor experiences. By opening up the posts (and not just the comments) to their most engaged customers, Backcountry builds a lot of content (including photos and video) and attracts lots of new page views from potential customers. And every post is a micro-brand story featuring gear available from Backcountry.com. It's tough to read this post about a trip to Madagascar without thinking, I could use a set of these and one of these the next time I go trekking off to Ranomafana (or the Uintas or Moab)—better stock up now. Even if readers don't buy immediately, they know exactly where they can get their gear when they need it. It's a great way to share a brand story.

Perhaps most importantly, Backcountry can attribute sales north of six figures back to links from its blogs (sorry, I don't remember the exact number). That may not be a lot to some, but to many small businesses that's a difference maker.

Hmmm... sharing relevant brand stories and making money at the same time. No wonder Liberty Media was so interested in these guys.

I have character flaws. But I am not a racist. I do not lie. And I’m not a corporate drone.

The story:I work for a company called Logoworks. We specialize in the creation of high-quality logos, websites, brochures, and other design. Our business model uses a combination of in-house designers and a dispersed workforce to create the art we provide for our customers. Our clients receive a wide variety of art and a very competitive price. It’s a disruptive business model that has affected pricing and expectations in the marketplace.

And we had a hiccup along the way. Without going into too much detail (details here), we inadvertently placed 3 logos in our gallery that were not original. When this was brought to our attention, we admitted our mistake and immediately removed the artwork from our website. More importantly, we terminated our relationship with the designers who provided the artwork. None of the artwork was sold to a client. We also strengthened our oversight policies to help ensure it wouldn’t happen again. And so far, it hasn’t.

At the time we also engaged in the “conversation” on the forum where our mistake was first reported to try to explain what happened. But rather than an open discussion about how we were addressing the issue, we found that most of the participants were only interested in affirming their previously held, negative opinions about us. We even invited a couple of critics to visit Logoworks’ headquarters, at our expense, to meet our design team, but were rebuffed, then mocked.

More recently, we created a corporate blog to share the truth about some of these issues, which still come up from time to time. This has apparently stirred up the hornet’s nest again. As a company, we welcome honest feedback, debate, even criticism of our business model. But rather than engaging in a conversation, the critics accuse us of being racist and lying about our intentions. And now I’ve been called a corporate drone for trying to share the other side of the story.

I don’t intend to discuss the good/bad of Logoworks’ business model or design practices here. That debate is raging elsewhere. Instead, this is a comment on the state of the blogosphere. We live in an age of rage. But it strikes me that criticism and feedback is more acceptable when it’s not laced with name-calling, vitriol, or worse.

For the record: #1: Logoworks does not pursue racist outsourcing policies as we have been accused of doing. Yes we have a dispersed work force. But we pay our designers in Sweden, New Zealand, Canada, and elsewhere exactly the same amount we pay our designers in the United States. We are one of the few companies in the world with a dispersed work force that does this. Most people would call this egalitarian, not racist.

#2: I did not lie or dissemble when I wrote in a blog comment that our inspiration for the myths came from various sources. They did. I was involved in the process.

#3: I believe deeply in Logoworks’ mission to help small businesses look great. We’ve created a company that is unique in its ability to help small businesses that couldn’t afford design services in the past. It’s a model that has worked for hundreds of talented designers and thousands of happy customers. I also believe that no one in the design industry has addressed the issues of plagiarism as well as we have. Are we perfect? No. Will we make mistakes in the future? Possibly. Will we address any problems in the future and make it right for our customers? Absolutely.

Trying to defend a company against disinformation and other inaccuracies does not make one a drone. Repeating the same tired criticisms in forums and blogs without regard for the truth or open discussion, well, THAT might.

Ironically, in one of the forums, a designer wrote about finding a Logoworks ad link on a website. She wrote the webmaster to share the above story (although I assume from a less than neutral angle) and the website took our link down. Fair enough. Another designer wrote in response to that post: “Wow, I'm impressed. I really respect people who listen to the advice/complaints of others...and really consider whether it might be valid.” Apparently that only applies to those who listen to and believe our detractors. Others, who listen, then agree with us, are denigrated and harassed.

So why are people so upset? As I said above, Logoworks is a disruptive company. Because we can create a high-quality product that customers appreciate at a lower price, we are helping to change an industry. Some designers (not all) who can’t offer a better value to their customers are threatened by this. So, they lash out, rather than adapt to the new reality. As a highly visible, well-funded company, we take the brunt of the criticism.

Last thing: I understand that not all designers feel this way about Logoworks. Some have been fair in their assessments and criticism. Some have even approached us, after reading the criticism, and asked to work for us. These few generally seem interested in a real discussion. Unfortunately, their voices are often drowned out by the shrill criticisms of the mob.

We listened to criticisms and made improvements to our system. Will our detractors notice? Only if they’re interested in a real discussion, rather than a flame war. In the mean time, let’s keep the debate rational, the volume low, and the personal attacks to a minimum.

May 25, 2006

It's been a little while since my last post. My time has been spent on other, more pressing things (new responsibilities at work, kid's soccer leagues, training, etc.). It didn't take long to get out of the habit. And to wonder if my thoughts really add to the conversation?

December 22, 2005

Recently John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing offered me a slot at the Duct Tape Marketing Blog Channel to write about the design issues facing small businesses. The blog went live today. You can check it out here. This is not intended to be a blog about designers or design techniques, but rather about how design is used (effectively and ineffectively) by businesses. Hopefully it will help some small business owners make smart decisions about how they use design to support their brand stories.

November 15, 2005

I am a long-time subscriber to a terrific publication called Communication Arts. It's well known in the advertising and design industries for its annual awards, stellar art direction, and well-thought commentaries. But for the past 6 months or so, it hasn't shown up at my door, even though my subscription doesn't run out until next year.

To find out why, I used the link on the subscription manager page of their website to submit my problem. I never heard back. A month later, I tried again and followed up with an email, asking someone to please help me fix this problem so I can get my magazines (which, by the way, I have paid for).

This was the response I got:

Dear Subscriber,We received your inquiry that you have not received all of your issues.We are unable to explain this problem, as our records show that all issueshave been mailed correctly.To compensate for issue(s) missed your service has been extended. Thank you for alerting us to this problem.

Sincerely, ABCustomer Service

Gee, thanks. No offer to ship back issues (they are still available). No acknowlegement of my name. I've been a loyal subscriber for more than 10 years, they should know who I am, shouldn't they? No offer to help figure the problem out. No name or email address I can respond to. Nice personal touch, signing it AB, from customer service. AB, what exactly did you do to serve this customer?

I still love this magazine. But the service I'm receiving from the operations side, doesn't jibe with the high-quality brand promise (or the commercial promise that I will receive a magazine that I paid for in advance). How much longer will I value this brand? Who knows? If I pay for copies I never receive, it won't last long. And given how hard it is to earn a new subscriber at $53 for eight issues, you'd think they'd try a little harder to keep one that has valued this relationship for more than a decade.

Does your business suffer from operational problems that affect how your customers feel about your brand? Does your customer service department really serve your customers? Something to think about.

October 26, 2005

I apologize for the delay in recent posts. I took some time off after my wife delivered a new baby girl. Her name is Ainsley and she's a big hit with her two big brothers and big sister. No other products are planned in this brand line.

Posts may be a little sparse over the next week as well as I spend time
preparing my presentation for the MBA students at Thunderbird.